Topic: New Wii U owner - Console freezing/Lock up

Mine freezes sometimes when I load Miiverse from a game or app, is this a common OS issue or a defect? I probably wouldn't send mine in anyways since I have absolutely no issues with games hard freezing my Wii "The only issues with app freezes I had were with the buggy Youtube on the browser and Netflix which alot of people were having issues with."

My Wii U doesn't freeze a lot like some of these posts but when it has i hate having to unplug it, why can you not still trun it off by the power button? to me it doesn't feel like a safe thing to do but you've got no option, i also had the problem with Youtube but that was a week or two from the latest patch luckily.

To turn off old consoles, the power button just stopped the flow of electricity. New consoles, hitting the power button tells the console to go into a shutdown procedure. If the console really freezes up, it won't be able to go into that procedure. So then you pull the plug. While not ideal, yelling the plug is the exact same as how the power button on a GameCube or N64 worked.

I only run into freezing with Hulu +

I've only had 3 freezes in the past year.

It's a 99% chance that your internet isn't setup right, or 1% chance that your Wii U system is faulty. There actually a few people here on the boards that returned their console just to find out their internet was still jacked. The Wii U uses cloud for Miiverse, and if your router isn't setup to route(surprise) to the correct server/network, it can cause it to freeze, because it's not able to retrieve info that your asking it to get.

Either fix your internet routing and connection, or shut off cloud based operations like Spotpass(how Miiverse posts show up during a game) so that your Wii U isn't trying to get info from the internet constantly.

I've only had one freeze since the launch day of the WWHD bundle. Otherwise its been great. July plus sucks and YouTube is even worst. That is the app devs issue though and not related to Nintendo even though Nintendo does needs to speak up to Hulu and YouTube about the issues with them. Otherwise it's a great system and if you have a way to back your stuff up on a HDD or memory card, you should be fine if you take it back.

Hmmm.. This sounds interesting. I am in no way sure whether or not my router is set up right or where to turn off/on the nescessary stuff on the Wii U? Care to elaborate ? Just had a 2-3 hour play session (Pikmin 3) with spotpass turned off and it ran without any problems at all.

Pikmin 3 crashed numerous times earlier today.

I know that this is in no way enough to make a judgment, but it does make me wonder.

I guess I could try playing with the wifi turned off for a day or so and see the result. Worth testing at least.

@BarenBaren
Update your router to the latest firmware and make sure it is running on the factory default settings. That should resolve most issues.

Type in your IP address, (i.e. 192.168.1.3) to access your router settings. It will likely ask you for an ADMIN name and PASSWORD. These can either be found on the bottom of your router or were given to you by your internet provider. Go into utilities and look for the firmware update area. Download the firmware and run the update.
It might take 10-15 minutes to update.
Then, go to your settings and choose the restore to factory default SETTINGS. There's a difference between factory settings and factory firmware. Only set the settings to factory default(reseting the firmware to factory will take you back to square one since you updated). The router will reset to apply the settings.
You can see the progress on your modem that will tell you that it has power, a connection to your service provider, then internet. Use your Wii U like usual.

As long as you keep the settings as simple as possible(usually the factory default as I described) and make sure your router is up to date with the latest firmware, you shouldn't have any issues.

If you continue to have problems, you may need to change some settings to connect your Wii U to a more stable connection. This is most common in rural areas and the like, but most likely won't be necessary.

The reason a lot of people have freezes is, because their connection may be unstable while their system is accessing the internet. The Spotpass feature is cloud technology to access the internet on a regular basis(Pikmin 3 uses Spotpass to update the leaderboard). If your internet connection isn't stable, it won't be able to find that data over the network and may(in this case, most likely) cause the system to be more prone to freezes.

Cool stuff Scar. I'll give it a go first thing in the morning (getting late here). Thanks a lot for your response - I'll make sure to update with my findings tomorrow.

Appreciated <3

I've had my Wii U for more than 2 months, only a single lock-up, that was the day I got it going into the Youtube app.